UCLA football: Coach Rick Neuheisel preaches patience

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UCLA Coach Rick Neuheisel attributed the rough day the Bruins’ offensive line endured Saturday to growing pains.

The Bruins had only one player on the line who also played in a game last season, tackle Jeff Baca. The only other player who was in the program last season was center Kai Maiava. Tackle Xavier Su’a-Filo and guard Stanley Hasiak, both freshmen, and guard Eddie Williams, a community-college transfer, got their first taste of quasi-BCS division football during Saturday’s scrimmage.

The first team had 19 yards rushing in 25 attempts and could not budge the first team defense, which was missing defensive end Korey Bosworth and defensive tackle Jerzy Siewierski.

Still, the line did give quarterback Kevin Prince some time to throw. He was sacked only once and hurried into an interception another time.

Asked about the line play, Neuheisel said, ‘They just have to play. They just have to play. We had not had a whole lot of scrimmage repetitions prior to [Saturday]. Frankly, we can’t afford to. We don’t have that kind of depth. But we’re going to have to keep mixing them in. They have to communicate and deal with adversity without coaches out there pushing them along. They have to be able to do it themselves.’

UCLA has limited depth on the defensive line, which has coaches wary of live scrimmages in practice.

Bosworth (hip flexor) and Siewierski (strained back muscle) are expected to return this week, but the team also has lost defensive end Reginald Stokes (knee surgery), who is out at least half the season, and defensive tackle Jess Ward (sprained knee) and defensive tackle Andy Keane (foot injury).

They hope to have Keane back this week and Ward back in the next two weeks. Until then, there is only one player on the team who was a defensive tackle last season, junior Brian Price.

UCLA’s second-team defensive line Saturday included Sean Sheller, who was on the offensive line until last week, and true freshmen Keenan Graham and Iuta Tepa.

‘It will be midseason before we start seeing improvement with those players,’ defensive coordinator Chuck Bullough said. ‘They need to learn proper technique.’

That has limited the team’s live scrimmages.

‘Unfortunately, you’re danged if you do and danged if you don’t,’ Neuheisel said. ‘We have to get ready, but we don’t want to put these guys at risk.’

-- Chris Foster